I had no thoughts of violets of late, The wild, shy kind that spring beneath your feet In wistful April days, when lovers mate And wander through the fields in raptures sweet. The thought of violets meant florists' shops, And bows and pins, and perfumed papers fine; And garnish lights, and mincing little fops And cabarets and songs, and deadening wine. So far from sweet real things my thoughts had strayed, I had forgot wide fields, and clear brown streams; The perfect loveliness that God has made, -- Wild violets shy and Heaven-mounting dreams. And now -- unwittingly, you’ve made me dream Of violets, and my soul’s forgotten gleam.
Sonnets on Love, Rosebuds, and Death
Song Cycle by Dorothy Rudd Moore (1940 - 2022)
1. I had no thought of violets of late  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Alice Ruth Moore (1875 - 1935), as Alice Nelson Dunbar, "Sonnet"
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]2. Joy  [sung text checked 1 time]
Joy shakes me like the wind that lifts a sail, Like the roistering wind That laughs through stalwart pines. It floods me like the sun On rain-drenched trees That flash with silver and green, I abandon myself to joy I laugh -- I sing. Too long have I walked a desolate way, Too long stumbled down a maze Bewildered.
Authorship:
- by Clarissa M. Scott Delany (1901 - 1927), "Joy"
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]3. Some things are very dear to me  [sung text not yet checked]
Some things are very dear to me — [ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Gwendolyn B. Bennett (1902 - 1981), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 2, copyright ©
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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.4. He came in silvern armour, trimmed with black  [sung text not yet checked]
He came in silvern armour, trimmed with black [ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Gwendolyn B. Bennett (1902 - 1981), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 1, copyright ©
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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.5. Song for a Dark Girl  [sung text checked 1 time]
Way Down South in Dixie (Break the heart of me) They hung my [dark]1 young lover To a crossroads tree. Way Down South in Dixie (Bruised body high in air) I asked the white Lord Jesus What was the use of prayer. Way Down South in Dixie (Break the heart of me) Love is a naked shadow On a gnarled and naked tree.
Authorship:
- by Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967), "Song for a Dark Girl", appears in Fine Clothes to the Jew, first published 1927
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Moore: "black"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
6. Idolatry  [sung text checked 1 time]
You have been good to me, I give you this [ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Aurnaud Wendell Bontemps (1902 - 1973), "Idolatry", copyright © by Harold Ober Associates Inc.
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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.7. Youth Sings a Song of Rosebuds  [sung text checked 1 time]
Since men grow diffident at last, And care no whit at all, If spring be come, or the fall be past, Or how the cool rains fall, I come to no flower but I pluck, I raise no cup but I sip, For a mouth is the best of sweets to suck; The oldest wine's on the lip. If I grow old in a year or two, And come to the querulous song Of 'Alack and aday' and 'This was true, And that, when I was young,' I must have sweets to remember by, Some blossom saved from the mire, Some death-rebellious ember I Can fan into a fire.
Authorship:
- by Countee Cullen (1903 - 1946), "Youth Sings a Song of Rosebuds"
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]8. Invocation  [sung text checked 1 time]
Let me be buried in the rain [ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Helene Johnson (1906 - 1995), "Invocation", copyright ©
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